


the quatre knights enter the stage!

by orphan_account



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Family, Gen, everyone is legal, working title: the au that literally no one asked for ever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-19
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-13 20:56:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2164896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The drummer of the Quatre Knights notices a lot more than anyone gives her credit for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the quatre knights enter the stage!

**Author's Note:**

> [jayden](http://triclementia.god.jp) and i talked about this once. there may or may not be a collection incoming
> 
> *edit: this is technically a oneshot, but it's a four part story. so.

Neve is the one to bring up the idea.

"We should make a band," he says in that careful way of his, as though he's contemplating every word before it leaves his mouth. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of the van, his driving does not mirror his manner of speech; the highway is flying past their windows at almost seventy miles an hour.

Sera cringes. Gaillard groans. Rati's eyes go wide.

"Let's be a band!" declares the fourteen-year-old excitedly from the backseat, pawning Candy Crush off to Gaillard as she stretches her arms wide. "We'll play for concerts worldwide, and go everywhere, Japan and France and Spain and Canada and the Netherlands and—"

"The _Netherlands?"_ Sera cuts her off midsentence, raising an eyebrow. "Why the Netherlands?"

"LEGO factory!" declares Rati firmly. Sera presses two fingers to his forehead.

Gaillard stares at Rati's phone and pales slightly upon seeing the array of pixelated candies. "Rati, what level are you on?"

"Seventy-something," answers Rati with a shrug. "But that doesn't matter! Pay attention to what Neve said!"

"It was just an idea." Neve shifts gears and takes a sharp turn; Gaillard goes even paler.

"But it could work!" Rati's practically bouncing in her seat as she flashes a wicked grin in the direction of the front mirror. "I play drums—"

"You're self-taught," interrupts Gaillard, "and I started taking bass lessons last month—"

"So what?" Rati puffs up her cheeks and glares at him. The other three inhabitants of the car know better than to call her angry face adorable, even though it clearly fits the qualifications.

"So nothing." Gaillard crosses his arms. "We're a bunch of amateurs."

"Seraaaa!" Rati wails from the backseat.

"Children, please. We love you equally," intones Sera flatly. Although his words are sarcastic and appear to hold no real bite, his general presence is not one to be messed with; no further words are exchanged.

(Well. No audible words, anyway.)

"Killjoy," mouths Rati when Sera isn't looking. "You ruin everything fun."

"I prefer _realist,"_ Gaillard whispers back loftily, brushing short blue locks out of his face with a smirk.

"Well, _I_ prefer killjoy!"

"Dunkin Donuts," announces Neve as the car comes to a stop.

The effect on the current conversation is instantaneous. Rati's outside in seconds, and Gaillard bolts after her in a futile attempt to stop her mad dash for pastries. The words _calm the fuck down_ float clearly into Sera's auditory receptors, conveyed by the gentle summer breeze, and he and Neve sigh in synchronization as the latter locks up the car.

* * *

 

"...And that's how our band started," finishes Gaillard, offering a modest shrug. "Neve called in a few favors and set us up to open for Team Ultra-Rare two weeks later, and about a month after that we began recording our first album as the Quatre Knights."

"Actually, I remember that!" exclaims Rati, eyes lighting up. "You really were _rude_ back then, weren't you?"

"You leapt out of a still-moving car for _Dunkin Donuts!"_ retorts the latter, laughing despite himself. "What was I supposed to do, let you go?"

"Yes?" tries Rati, grinning.

Gaillard sighs exaggeratedly, and the host of the variety show they're on laughs along with the audience before continuing her questioning.

"Gaillard, you mentioned Team Ultra-Rare just now. Do the recent rumors concerning you and Kourin Tatsunagi hold a shred of truth to them? A relationship out of the public eye, perhaps?"

"Not at all," responds Gaillard easily, although Rati can feel him tensing up next to her. She winces in sympathy, because he doesn't deserve the fourth degree about relationships from yet another media figure with a predatory smile (even if he did eat her toast this morning instead of making his own.)

The interviewer leans forward, obviously intending to press further, but the cue to end the segment flashes behind the studio camera. The audience stands to applaud, and she claps with them before delivering the traditional thank-yous to the two members of the Quatre Knights for making an appearance on their stage and promising her captive crowd exciting extras after the show.

Commercial break begins, and the studio clears for a bit. Rati smiles apologetically at the show's host and says they really should get going because Neve is waiting on them. They make their escape with speed and grace, exiting stage right, but before they can get free, the leading lady stops them by the door to shake their respective hands.

"It was a pleasure to have you on our show today!"

The smile drops from Gaillard's face the second they're out the door. "A pleasure for _her,_ maybe. We're an instant ratings booster because of the tour."

"Gai, be nice!" Rati pouts as they pass a vending machine, pausing to eye the Oreos hungrily.

"Food later." The sharp-eyed bassist nudges her with his elbow. "Sera said he'd buy us takeout."

"Takeout?" Rati sparkles. Neve is an avid fan of healthy eating, so they rarely get fast food, but he's lightened up recently after last week's discovery of her enormous stash of doughnuts. She crosses her fingers and hopes for Korean barbecue as they join the security guards by the back exit.

"Ready?" Gaillard glances down at her, and she nods back.

"Always."

They're swarmed by the paparazzi in an instant. Security guards hold off the masses of professionals whose job descriptions are literally the lives of other people while Rati and Gaillard join Neve and Sera in the fancy band van. Personally, Rati likes theirs better (it's the one with the busted seat belts and the worn cushions and the one mirror that you have to fix by hand because someone, probably Gaillard, spilled their frappucino on the controls) but she's not about to argue with what the company's provided them. In their profession, appearances are important, which makes her music all the more important to her: it's her outlet, her only place to pour out the soul that the so-called high life tries to stifle.

Lost in her thoughts, Rati barely notices the studio until the van's stopped and Gaillard is poking her with one of her own drumsticks. She snatches it from him and sticks it into one of her side clips, giving him a sour look.

"What did I do?" protests the recipient of the sour look.

"Well, gee, I don't know," responds Rati snappily, tugging the other drumstick from his hand and forcing her way past him. "How would you feel if someone started poking you with your own guitar clip?"

"I play _bass!"_

Gaillard's offended yell blows right past the short girl stalking up the stairs, but he does manage to scare some birds.

* * *

 

Recording takes a long time.

It's later than any of them expected by the time they exit the studio, and the sun paints a gorgeous palette of rays across the sky. Rati halts on the stairs in awe, pointing upwards.

"Guys, look!"

"Pretty." Sera stifles his yawn as he jogs down to join her. Their shadows stretch all the way down the steps, nearly reaching Neve, who's waiting for them at the bottom.

"Also pretty _late."_ Gaillard brushes past them with a lofty expression. "Maybe _someone_ shouldn't have spent so much time poking at the mics."

Sera bristles. "You were the one who spent ten minutes looking for a damn _outlet!"_

"Cut it out!" Rati dashes between them, hands planted angrily on her hips. "What are you, five?"

"That's giving Gaillard too much credit," mutters Sera under his breath, before he is pinned to the stairwell by Rati's most terrifying glare.

Neve ignores them all, lifting the keys to the van from Gaillard's pocket with a practiced hand as he steps past the squabbling trio.

They order their food while stuck in traffic on the bridge, giving the takeout place enough time to make their meals. Since her phone is dead, Rati borrows Neve's to place the combined order; she regrets it immediately upon picking up the brick that the oldest Quatre Knight considers an acceptable cellular device.

"Neve. What the hell is this?"

"It's called a phone. I believe you possess one too."

"But...it's so _old!"_ For emphasis, Rati passes off the phone to Gaillard; the latter makes a strangled noise that sounds vaguely like a snicker before handing off the atrocious hardware to Sera.

"Don't give this back." Sera stares down the brick-like piece of technology like it's a spider. "Better yet, throw it out the window. We're going to the Apple store tomorrow."

Neve scowls at the road as Rati calls in the order on Sera's Galaxy, but offers no further protest as his phone is pocketed.

The light changes, freeing the van from the hellish bridge traffic, and they make it to the takeout place with just enough time to hit the bakery before it closes.

"Where do they all go?" whispers Gaillard as Rati orders an assortment of two dozen doughnuts.

"She hides them in her drum sets," responds Sera dryly.

Rati flips them both off without missing a beat, collecting her dessert with a sunny smile.

The reporters catch them as they leave, yelling increasingly ridiculous questions at their small party, and Rati manages to keep the unperturbed expression on her face until someone accuses Gaillard and Rati's latest collab of violating copyrights. She whips around at the speed of light, fully prepared for a fight, but freezes in surprise as Sera lunges past her.

What's even more surprising is that _Gaillard_ is the one to go after him.

"They're wrong," he says, catching Sera's jacket sleeve, and the taller male turns his back on the reporters with gritted teeth.

Rati turns away then too, balancing the box of doughnuts in her arms as she trails them to the relative safety of the van. Gaillard still hasn't released Sera's windbreaker, and she attributes it to a good tactical decision because the latter party still looks murderous.

* * *

 

The drive home is unnaturally silent, but everyone relaxes slightly as Neve drives up to the gate of Paladin Heights, where the clientele are superstars and the security (and the rent) is ridiculous. None of the above prevents the paparazzi from trying, unfortunately, and guards swoop in on the trio of expensive cars closely following them.

Sera curses imaginatively. "They're never going to give up, are they?"

"Hey, check it out!" Rati exclaims through a mouthful of doughnut, motioning towards the other checkpoint. "Looks like the gang from Legion Mate is coming in too!"

Gaillard groans, rolling his eyes. _"Please_ don't ask to exchange autographs with that redheaded kid again—"

"Suzugamori Ren," corrects Rati primly.

"Isn't it unprofessional to fangirl over bands that are supposed to be your rivals?" Gaillard replies, feigning innocence.

The van explodes with noise, and life resumes as usual. Sera filches a doughnut while Rati and Gaillard bicker about her healthy appreciation for Legion Mate and Neve ferries them all through security without batting an eye. They pair off in the lobby: Rati and Sera opt for the elevator (and the food) while Gaillard and Neve vow to beat them to the top via the sixth-floor stairs. As usual, the elevator wins, and Gaillard swears revenge (read: a thorough annihilation in Mario Kart) as Neve turns the key in the door. Rati dishes out plates while Sera gets chopsticks and Neve tries to stop Gaillard from drinking soda, and they all slouch on the beanbag chairs instead of at the table to dig in with gusto.

The takeout plates have barely touched the bottom of the sink before Gaillard and Sera are competing for the Wii Remote with the steering wheel attached to it. Rati wins the draw for the main controller and picks Rainbow Road with an angelic smile, and it all goes downhill from there.

Literally.

"Motherfucker!" yells Gaillard as he's shoved off the edge of the track by Sera's perfectly executed drift.

"Suck it," responds Sera serenely as he fires a green shell in Rati's direction. It misses by a mile—not that it matters, because Rati is an entire lap ahead of everyone else—and flies into the distance, sending Neve careening straight into a banana peel.

"I fucking hate you." Fuming, Gaillard slams the accelerator button in vain as his character is slowly and painfully lowered onto the surface of the track. Ten seconds later, his animosity is all but gone as he slams headfirst into an item box and picks up the same item as Sera.

"Tag team."

"Tag team," affirms Sera with a diabolical grin, and they fire their blue shells in perfect synchronization.

Onscreen, Rati's character spins out and she yells something unprintable as Gaillard's racer flies past her.

"I'm still a lap ahead, losers!"

"Not for long," chorus the rest of the Quatre Knights, and Rati watches in horror as two invincibility stars activate in the corner of her screen.

Sera wins the race, because Sera has the best aim and Sera has three shells and Sera is the only one who knows how to _drift_ on Rainbow Road. Rati sulks near the couch with her box of doughnuts, watching him compete with Gaillard for top spot in the rankings.

"We have a session in the morning," tries Neve, to no avail.

"This _asshole_ has top time in half the tracks here," spits Gaillard, leaning a little too close to Sera while trying to execute a right-side turn.

"Oh, _please._ Don't talk to me until you can actually control your turns," Sera scoffs, and just like that they're back to trading insults.

Rati wonders whether anyone has noticed that Gaillard is still practically pressed into Sera's side (or that Sera has just shifted to accommodate him better instead of shoving him away) but decides that they're both probably too invested in the game to care. She scrambles up onto the couch and tucks herself neatly into one of the cushions, dropping her running commentary in favor of succumbing to the drowsiness brought on by an abundance of warm food and familiar instrumentals.

* * *

 

In the middle of the night, Rati wakes up with Sera's blanket over her and Gaillard's stuffed Vanguard card plush under her head and Neve's headband standing in for her hair clips. The floor seems to have moved, and she blinks at it in confusion until she realizes that it's harboring not only a decidedly less-than-stable pillow fort, but the remaining members of her family.

Sera is using Gaillard in lieu of his own pillow, and Gaillard appears to have retaliated by flinging an arm atop the latter's face. One of the remotes has ended up near Neve, who is curled up like a cat protecting its children, while the other is dangerously close to being kicked into the bookshelf by Gaillard's foot. The whole setup looks ridiculously comfortable, so Rati climbs off the couch and tiptoes gently around the Gaillard-Sera tangle to shut off the console before she tucks herself into Neve's side.

This time, she doesn't remember falling asleep.


End file.
